Publisher: Poemhunter com The World's Poetry Archive

Life and work
Early life
Walter Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, in West Hills, Town of Huntington,
Long Island, to parents with interests in Quaker thought, Walter and Louisa Van
Velsor Whitman. The second of nine children, he was immediately nicknamed
"Walt" to distinguish him from his father. Walter Whitman Sr. named three of his
seven sons after American leaders: Andrew Jackson, George Washington, and
Thomas Jefferson. The oldest was named Jesse and another boy died unnamed
at the age of six months. The couple's sixth son, the youngest, was named
Edward. At age four, Whitman moved with his family from West Hills to Brooklyn,
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living in a series of homes, in part due to bad investments. Whitman looked back
on his childhood as generally restless and unhappy, given his family's difficult
economic status. One happy moment that he later recalled was when he was
lifted in the air and kissed on the cheek by the Marquis de Lafayette during a
celebration in Brooklyn on July 4, 1825.
At age eleven Whitman concluded formal schooling. He then sought employment
for further income for his family; he was an office boy for two lawyers and later
was an apprentice and printer's devil for the weekly Long Island newspaper the
Patriot, edited by Samuel E. Clements. There, Whitman learned about the
printing press and typesetting. He may have written "sentimental bits" of filler
material for occasional issues. Clements aroused controversy when he and two
friends attempted to dig up the corpse of Elias Hicks to create a plaster mold of
his head. Clements left the Patriot shortly after, possibly as a result of the
controversy.